Holidays | The Whole Knit & Caboodle

Plastic Canvas Reindeer Basket

by wholeknitandcaboodle

Remember waaaaaay back (haha, about 11 posts ago) when I said I was one of those crafters who does anything? I come by it honestly. Take a peek at the reindeer basket my mom made and sent all the way from Nova Scotia! It’s made of plastic canvas. I don’t even know how many of these she’s made, I remember her making them when I was still living at home ten years ago. She sent it filled with chocolate and clothespin reindeer ornaments she made with my niece. ❤

Plastic Canvas reindeer candy basket

This may be my last post before the New Year, I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday. I have so much stuff to share in the New Year, I hope you’ll drop back!

Holidays

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Knittin’ Pretty

by wholeknitandcaboodle

I thought I’d post a Christmas stocking I made this summer (yes, this customer was proactive!). It was funny to be: a) Knitting while it was SO hot out and b) Doing Christmas orders so early but I was happy with how it turned out and the customer was SO pleased with it. I even lined it so it wouldn’t get stretched out of shape over the years. I may revisit this one when things slow down and make some for the fam 🙂

It was lots of work but so worth it!

For anyone interested in this pattern, it’s a free pattern on the Bernat website. It’s listed as an intermediate pattern which scared me a little bit (and I’ve never used so many colours at the same time!) but you never know you can do something unless you try, right? 😉

Holidays Knitting

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Gotta catch ’em all!

by wholeknitandcaboodle

Phew! Less than two weeks from Christmas and I’m still hard at it! I still have lots of orders but I know I’ll have them all finished in time. I’m very lucky to have so many trusting (and patient!) customers. I’ve been crocheting/knitting so much that my hands/arms/shoulders are sore but there’s no rest for the wicked right?

I don’t think I’ve watched an episode of Pokémon since I was a teenager and was babysitting kids who watched the show but I was asked to make a couple of Pokémon hats- a Pliplip (penguin) and a Teddiursa (bear). Don’t ask me what they do because I honestly couldn’t tell you. I’m very pleased with how they turned out though.

With most of my character hats, I do the faces in appliqué. This is what makes them look so clean. It takes more time but it appeases my OCD.. haha.

Gotta catch ’em all! (And yes, I googled that.. haha)

This order will result in two happy little girls with very warm heads this Christmas! 🙂

Other than orders there’s just been a lot of the usual- tree decorating, card addressing, gingerbread house decorating.. although I think “On Top of the Microwave Dive” is a bad area of town, one of the gingerbread men has gone missing (perhaps he was enjoyed with a glass of eggnog) you’ll be seeing his face on little gingerbread milk cartons before too long!

Crochet Holidays

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Awkward family photos?

by wholeknitandcaboodle

I’m a little photo obsessed. I’ll admit it. When I had my daughter I had the chance to get her in for newborn photos and that was it- I was hooked. We must have had her in for professional photos 5 or 6 times in her first year. I’ve slowed down a little bit- I’ve only had her in for pro photos a few times this year- our latest session being today.

While I was cruising around Etsy a little while back I stumbled upon the cutest little vintage-inspired apron and thought to myself “How cute would that be in a “baking cookies” themed photo session?”. I couldn’t have been happier with it, I can’t wait to see the photos!

For the session we also had the option of doing an outfit change and ended up putting her in a black lace romper. She was getting a little tired of being posed (AND she had taken a bite out of a good half dozen chocolate chip cookies I had brought for the shoot and might have had a bit of a sugar high). She noticed a small bed in the studio that the photographer uses for little, little babies. Well. my girl decided that she wanted to lie in it. “BED? Bed? Bed?” she asked. We dragged it over and told her she could sit on it but that she was just too big to lie down on it… That did NOT stop her. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

The original plan was to get some sweet shots of her with a pretty sparkling light background but we had to bribe her with a cookie and appease her demand for the bed. We had her sitting on it for a moment but she had it in her head that she had to lie on it. You could see the cogs turning in her head as she contorted herself, trying to fit into the teeny bed. What resulted was this ridiculous kind of giant-baby, tiny-bed pinup pose as she awkwardly balanced herself on her side with limbs jutting out in all directions- all while trying to stuff cookies into her mouth.

I would have loved to have some of those sweet angelic shots to send to friends and relatives but let’s face it- she’s MY kid and the apple doesn’t fall far from the awkwardly posing, cookie gorging tree. At the very least I’ll have some good blackmail photos when she’s a teenager. 😉

**Update**
Here are a couple of previews from yesterday! Big thanks to Brynnstone Photography for capturing these moments for us!

Always the little ham! ❤

She will never live this one down.. hahaha

Holidays

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They’re ALIIIIIIIVE!! (Well, not really but they’re pretty stinkin’ cute!)

by wholeknitandcaboodle

It’s fun to have extra reasons to be creative. I saw a really cute pin on Pinterest where someone had painted their fingernails to look like little Frankenstein’s Monsters and thought I’d try my hand at it.

They didn’t turn out too badly! As long as they last through the day tomorrow I’ll be happy 🙂

I’m pretty happy with them. Happy enough to try this nail art thing again sometime.

I love fall. The colours, the way the air smells, Halloween! I get this sort of giddy feeling when the temperature lowers and it’s almost as though I can finally breathe. Don’t get me wrong, summertime is fun but sometimes the heat seems almost oppressive.

I’ll miss the warm breeze on my shoulders but there’s something comforting about fall clothes- soft sweaters, comfy slippers, leggings- that I just love. I’m also a COAT person. I love me some coats. I’ve had my eye on this gorgeous black cape style coat for a little while and my husband bought it for me on the weekend. LOVE! It’s gorgeous. I didn’t even want a bag for it- I asked the cashier if I could just wear it out of the store.

Halloween is so much fun too. The idea of dressing up and being something that you’re not- even for just one night- just has that appeal to it. Thinking back to some of the costumes I’ve worn over the years- One year my mom braided my hair around a wire coat hanger and I went as Pippi Longstocking. When I was in the 7th grade I went as a “responsible adult”.. sensible heels, skirt, blazer and a suitcase (don’t ask me how I came up with that one!).

Now that I have a daughter it’s turned to a whole different kind of fun. Last year she was a monkey. Not just ANY monkey.. an organ grinder’s monkey with a little fez hat and vest. At the last minute I crocheted a banana to go with her outfit and nearly DIED laughing when she shoved it in her mouth (yes, I know it’s not unusual for a toddler to put something in their mouth but she grabbed it and started munching on the “right” end).

Well, today has proven to be another case of not working on things I should be working on. Book club has been postponed so at least I don’t have to finish my book today. I’ll put the pedal to the metal and get some more hats done for the show this weekend!

Holidays

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A fun pumpkin to carve, this was.

by wholeknitandcaboodle

When I have a long list of things that I should be doing, the last thing I want to do is ANYTHING on that list. That definitely seems to be the case with me today! I have a craft/gift show coming up on November 3 (my very first one!) and a book to read for book club tomorrow night and what did I do instead? I carved a pumpkin. Not something that should be crazy high on my priority list but something I look forward to doing every year. I’m really happy with the way it turned out!

It seems our theme this Halloween is Star Wars. I’ve never been a huge fan but my husband LOVES it and asked me to make our daughter (who is almost 2) a Princess Leia costume. Hubby has taken the day off from work but wants to go in to work to show off our “mini Leia” so I thought I would make hats for he and I as well- a Yoda one for myself and an R2D2 hat for him. Our hats still need to be assembled but they’re stitched up at least.

Before the Star Wars plan came together, I was going to do a Where the Wild Things Are pumpkin. Maybe next year. There were a few different Star Wars designs but I went for Yoda (he seemed easier than the Death Star but more challenging than the Darth Vader ones I saw). Here’s how he turned out: